314 METALS. 



province of Minas Geraes ; in New Grenada at Antioquia, 

 Choco, and Giron ; in Chili ; sparingly in Peru and Mexico ; 

 in the southern of the United States. In Europe, it is most 

 abundant in Hungary at Konigsberg, Schemnitz and Felso- 

 banya, and in Transylvania at Kapnik, Vordspatak and Of- 

 fenbanya ; k occurs also in the sands of the Rhine, the Reuss 

 and the Aar ; on the southern slope of the Pennine Alps 

 from the Simplon and Monte Rosa to the valley of Aosta ; 

 in Piedmont ; in Spain, formerly worked in Asturias ; in the 

 county of Wicklow, Ireland ; in Sweden at Edelfors. 



In the Urals are valuable mines at Beresof, and other 

 places on the eastern or Asiatic flank of this range, and the 

 comparatively level portions of Siberia ; also in the Altai 

 mountains. Also in the Cailas mountains in Little Thibet. 



There are mines in Africa at Kordofan, between Darfour 

 and Abyssinia ; also south of Sahara in the western part of 

 Africa, from the Senegal to Cape Palmas ; also along the 

 coast opposite Madagascar, between the 22d and 35th degrees 

 south latitude, supposed to have been the Ophir of the time 

 of Solomon. Other regions are China, Japan, Formosa, 

 Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, western coast of Borneo, the Phil- 

 ippines, Australia, Van Diemen's land and New Zealand. 



The present total yield of the gold mines of the world is 

 not less than 195 tons. | Much the larger part of this (about 

 175 tons) comes from Asiatic Russia, South America, Aus- 

 tral ia an d C al ifor n ia. ^ » " ^ 



The Russian mines' till recently ranked first in pro- 

 ductiveness. They are principally alluvial washings, and 

 these washings seldom yield more than 65 grains of gold for 

 4000 pounds of soil ; never more than 120 grains. The 

 alluvium is generally most productive where the loose ma- 

 terial is most ferruginous. The mines of Ekaterinenberg 

 are in the parent rock — a quartz constituting veins in a half 

 decomposed granite called " beresite," which is connected 

 with talcose and chloritic schists. The shafts are sunk ver- 

 tically in the beresite, seldom below 25 feet, and from them 

 lateral galleries are run to the veins. These mines afforded 

 between the years 1725 and 1841, 679 poods of gold, or 

 about 30,000 pounds troy. The whole of the Russian mines 

 yielded in 1842, 970 poods of gold, or 42,000 pounds troy, haJV 



W-iat is said of the distribution of gold over the globe 1 V" Hat 

 count *ies afford the greatest part of the gold of commerce 1 



